EPOW - Ecology Picture
of the Week

Each week a different image of our
fascinating environment is featured, along with a brief explanation written
by a professional ecologist.

9-15 June 2008

Click on images for larger versions

Harpoon
Fishing in the Congo

Local fishermen with traditional
fishing harpoon,
left photo: 1950 ... right photo: 2006
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Africa

Credit & Copyright: Dr. Bruce G.
Marcot

Explanation: Some
traditions seem to never die. This week we are visiting the Democratic
Republic of the Congo in a time machine.

This
could very well be the same man in both photos, wielding a trident-like
harpoon by which to spear river fish. But these photos span some 56
years.

The
photo on the left is from a rare book, "Encyclopedie du Congo Belge"
(Encyclopedia of the Belgium Congo, the older name for what later was called
Zaire and now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). The caption to the
photo reads "Fisherman with harpoon, in the river Kasai (Photo M. Huet.)."

The
photo on the right is one I took in the Ubange River in 2006. It is a
typical scene of local fishermen wielding very much the same kind of fish
harpoon, from the same low-draught dugout pirogue (canoe).

Moreover, according to a recent article in Discover
magazine, in the Congo along the Semliki River, some 80,000 years ago
itinerant peoples began fishing by using a "composite harpoon tipped with
a beautifully manufactured, symmetrical barbed point carves from bone"
... which also describes the structure of harpoons still used there
today. The article goes on to state that these harpoons were unlike
anything that previous people including Neanderthals and archaic humans had
ever produced.

Fish are a vital part of the diet of local
people in central Africa, and likely has been for millennia, as a critical source of protein. In fact, during the rainy
season in
the Congo Basin (which includes the Congo, Ubange, Kasai, Semliki, and many other
rivers), much of the jungle floods and people fish
within the forests!